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reason_n	great_a	implicit_a	novice_n	36	3	16.4912	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43613	The ceremony-monger his character in five chapters ... with some remarks (in the introduction) upon the new-star-chamber, or late course of the Court of King's Bench, of the nature of a libel, and scandalum magnatum, and in conclusion, hinting at some mathematical untruths and escapes in the common-prayer book, both as to doctrine and discipline, and what bishops, were, are, and should be, and concerning ordination, humbly proposed to the consideration of the Parliament / by E. Hickeringill ...	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing H1799; ESTC R20364	90,871	81

Burden so much too heavy for any single Shoulder that they are forc'd to perform the great Acts of a Bishop in Ordinations Confirmations Excommunications Absolutions c. only by Foppish as well as Popish like Implicite Faith seeing with other Mens Eyes and hearing with other Mens Ears that it is no wonder that they err so often Oh! but the Wages then must be divided as well as the Work Flesh and Blood cannot bear this Doctrine No it cannot therefore Flesh and Blood cannot enter neither into the Kingdom of Heaven But a Bishop of all others ought not to consult with Flesh and Blood and self-Interest which above all things in the World does bribe Mens Judgments that they cannot because they will not give their Assent and Consent to so great a Truth King Charles I. was tenaciously in love with Bishops as now in England constituted even to death so great was his Opinionatree in the Case ●nd yet he says they were not Bishops Jure Divino by Divine Right and yet neither contra Jus Divinum But I think quite contrary viz. that ●here is nothing in Scripture more plain than that Bishops are Jure divino and nothing more plain than that the Bishops in Eng●and now constituted are contrary absolutely contrary to Jus Divi●um or Divine Right so far as they act like Novices in Implicite Faith Tim. 3.3 A Bishop must neither be a Novice nor given to filthy ●ucre For any B●y-Bishop any ignorant and unlearned Bishop is as ●ood as the best in those Acts of Implicite Faith any Novice can see ●ith other Mens Eyes and hear with other Mens Ears any Novice can and the greater Novice the fitter too believe as others believe without any other Reason Therefore since the Holy Scripture says a Bishop ought not to be a Novice if he be a Novice that sees but by Implicite Faith then tell me count them if you can How many Novices have we in England that do all their greatest Acts by Implicite Faith This is as bold a Stroke you 'l say as ever was and yet not a jot too bold to strike at so Grand so Poppish so Popish a Folly as Implicite Faith by which it must be granted and cannot be denied our protestant Bishops do all their mighty Businesses and is the cause of such a contemptible and ignorant Glergy ill grounded Excommunications and Absolutions and ●apias's thereupon and such unscriptural irrational and Blind Confirmations perswading the Ignorant that they are fit to receive the other Sacrament of of the Lord's Supper when they know nothing of the Creed and sometimes were never listed or matriculated into Mother-Church by the Initiating Ordinance of Baptism But that is the Fault of the Person not of the Constitution If that were true it might be amended but it is false for it is not the Fault of the Person only but the Fault of the Constitution which obliges no Bishop in his Office and performance of these great Episcopal Acts but only to the knowledge of a Novice or implicite Faith. Nay if our Constitution did oblige him it would oblige him to Impossibilities for his Work is more than any Mortal can perform in propriâ personâ and the great charge of Souls which he takes upon him more terrible if his Conscience be awake or not brib'd with the Wages it must be sensible that no Plety Parts or Prudence can possibly discharge except as now by implicite Faith which any Bay a● Child a● Nevice can perform as well as the best It was Covetousness therefore and Ambition that first made Bishopricks so large for the sake of making all the Bishops Lands therein one Man's Monopoly and also made Bishops Consciences so large as to gape and swallow all the relishing Bit was so gustful and grateful to a greedy Gut but from the beginning it was not so Now every County must have a Bishop nay sometimes two or three or four Counties will scarcely hold one great Bishop nay to them too must be added sometimes a Rich Deanery Is it not strange that a Bishop should be a Deacon again for the Mony sake and a Parson again by Commendum for the sake of some bulky Parsonage like Wiggin in Lancashire in Commendum held by Dr. Cartwright Bishop of Chester now advanc'd to be a non-such Protestant Reader in Popish France and Curat to a Popish Prince in the Protestant Chappel in the Castle of Merli And I am perswaded they will have the Grace to blush if it do not also make their heartsake before I have done at the horrible Burthen they have undertaken which the Shoulders of the strongest and ablest Apostles of Christ never did or durst renture to take upon themselves no Mortal ever did or can discharge it but in this Novice way by Proxy or blind Implicite Faith God in his Mercy forgive them they know not what they do Philippi nay Jerusalem a little scanty City not so big and populous as Colchester by half and yet had several Bishops at a time therein Philip 1.1 To all the Saints which art at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons How many Bishops of London at this rate must there needs be in London not to mention the three Counties of Hartford Essex and Middlesex into the bargain Ay but the House of Lords will not hold so many Bishops No I grant There are Bishops ●now there already as some have laid and angerly grudge that we Clergy-men who are as much represented in the House of Commons as any Commoners in England and make as great a bustle at an Election of Members to get Men for our turn should also be represented in the other House which no other Commoners are and that my Lords the Bishops are tried by their Peers that is by their Equals Commoners but the Lords are Conciliarii Nati It is part of their Inheritance to be the King's Councellors and a Seat in the House of Lords is part of their Estate and State. But such Men talk like those that say that we had English Parliaments before Bishops and Abbots sat in the House of Lords and many Statutes the Judges say are good Law tho made in several Parliaments excluso Clere the Lord-Bishops and Lord-Abbots being shut out of Doors and not permitted into the House of Lords nay the Lord Abbots that had as good and as antient Right to sit in the House of Lords as Lord-Bishops are Long ago and to this day excluded Notwithstanding my known Devotion to my Lords the Bishops I confess I have not skill enough to answer such Reasons and Records It behoves them that have more wit and are more concern'd than I to give this a Rational Answer I consels my Ignorance but my Devotion to them is well enough known And I cannot deny but that the Bookish-men as my Lords are bred and usually Fellows of Colledges by that state they take upon them in the Colledge all but themselves going bare to them if they do but

is the Brains you 'l say of all our Ceremony-Mongers Where do you say They are there where they always were but never Consulted in any of these Illegal and silly Ceremonies further then whether they are like Popish Ceremonies That 's the Test that 's the Testimonial that first gave them Entrance into a Protestant Church and the Papists finely laugh at us and deride us for being their Apes as I have heard the Popish Friers beyond Sea Jear at us for the Mimickry grave English Noddles that have no other Reason not Religion for what they do but that they are the Pope's Baboons in spight of Holy Scripture Right Reason true Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom This confused Noise of the People is not Articulate but an un-intelligible and brutish Braying one Man's Voice drowns the Accent and Articulation of another and therefore is no more Intelligible than the Latine Mass and I suppose that the best Reason that can be given for it is that it keeps the people ignorant if they cannot read of at least one half of the Psalms The next step may be if this be suffered that the people shall read one half of the Chapters two and then though the vulgar cannot kept together from hearing the Scripture they shall be debarr'd one half in time we may go further we are just in the Popish Road that debars the vulgar from the whole Scriptures Read but the 1 Cor. 14.11.23 26.31 33. And if you fear God you will never do so any more Latin Prayers or Prayers in an unknown Tongue or an unintelligible Tongue also are Prophesies or Preachments in an untelligible Tongue by the Confusion of which God is not the Author but the Devil and the Pope invented these Contusions by them to beget the Mother of Popish and Ceremony Mongers Devotion Ignorance For saith St. Paul in that 1 Cor. 14.11 If I know not the Voice I shall be unto him that speaketh a Barbarian and he that speaketh shall be a Barbarian unto me Here is a plain Scripture against this confused Noise no man can know the meaning of a Voice that is not Articulate But what cares a Ceremony Monger for Scripture Give him his God give him his Mammon give him his popish Mimickry but whilst he makes himself a popish Ape he makes dull Englishmen both Apes and Asses All the Reason that ever any of them can give for this profane Folly is that the Singing boys do it and the great Heads do it and therefore the silly people like the Papists say must not we believe and practice as the Church believes and practises meaning by the Church the Clergy the rich the great and the gay Clergy And if this must be a Reason why may we not as well believe and practise as doth the ●ope of Rome as well any old Innocent here at home We talk of h●ting Popery in Italy we do well but not a j●● better for us if we follow the same Implicit Faith in England that the Italians do in Rome Thus the Prophets prophesie falsly and the Priests bear Rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof Let all things be done to edifying saith the Apostle and ye may all Prophesie or read for if Reading be not Preaching or Prophesing we have abundance of dumb Prophets if it be not a Bull in England 1 Cor. 14.31 Ye may all Prophesie read or preach one by one that all may Learn and all may be comforted Implying evidently that there can be no Learning no comfort no Edification in our confused and banling Superfuelon which is just like the Gossips Chat where all Tongues wag and all are Preachers and no Hearers Since therefore God is not the Author of this Confusion neither Law Canon Edification Rubrick Reason Act of Uniformity Religion nor Scripture to ●ouch it but point blank against all these tell me how it came here except from the Devil and the Pope Short Ejaculations as Amen Lord have Mercy or repeating after the Articulat Voice of the Minister falls not under this Censure But I wonder who taught the Women whose chiefest Beauty is modest Silence who taught them to prate in the Church They are so full of Tongue you 'l say that perhaps a little teaching would serve I never suffered such a confused babling in my Church of All-Saints Let them play the fools and popish Apishness some where else I never would permit them at which abundance of people took Snuff and because they might not be superstitious Apes they would not come there at all a good riddance of them they left the Room to their betters for we want nothing there so much as Room Is there not some fear least we all be beg'd Beg'd For what for wise men No but to replenish the Colledge of Gotham we are topping Fellows if the Pinacles of the Temple stand in view which is the way thither Are we not all as silly as that Cardinal who says Sit ergo Dominus noster papa baculus in aq●d fr●ctus absit tamen ut crederem quod viderim Let our Lord the pop●b a Staff partly in the water seeming crooked yet God forbid that I should believe mine own eyes Like Cardinal Bellarmin who makes Ignorance not Understanding the Ground of Faith Intending surely that none out Coxcombs priest-ridden should be of the Church This Ceremony monger carries one infallible Mark about him you may know him from a thousand for he sets such a Value and price upon his Illegal Trinkets and Ceremonies that if you take them or offer to take them from him he cryes out and roars like mad Micah Ye have taken away my gods which I made and the Priests and ye are gone away and what have I more And what is this that ye say unto me what aileth thee Would it not make a man bellow and cry to lose the Diana's by which he got his Wealth and on which ●o chiefly volues himself because it made him a man of value and those that are his Favourites on whom he puts the greatest Value That Trinket after him in a blind implicite slavish Mimickry and Imitation He that calls for a Reason he is not a man for his turn but sawcy troublesome and petulant Thus the blind lead the blind have a care of the ditch there just before you you had better take warning than tumble in But I fear lapidi loquor I wash a Black Moor I doubt yet I know no harm I do if I do him no no good if the Leopard will keep his Spots I did not make them he is Bedlam mad surely why dost thou strike so furiously I would but unshakle thee and set thee free or make thee set thy self free by representing thy self to thy self For I 'll assure thee that in City and Countrey good Master of the Ceremonies thou hast not amongst rational men more Beholders than Abhorrers Surely thy Ascendant

down as one did a certain Chappel in the memory of Man because the Chancel stood East and by Nore a little sideling whereas it should have stood better dut East that with one Cringe he might how to the Altar and the East also he was the wiser for so he kills two Birds with one Stone and one single bow by this laborious Regulation will serve to the Altar and the East also so to case his unweildly body he punishes his Purse by Eccle●astical Policy called Commutation O the Wit of an Ecclesiastical Politician But Fortuna favet fat Fortune favours ●●t falks a poor man might have been beggar'd by such a venture but the old D●tard Mr. Superstitions Noddy was his Name made Stairs of the Chappel-Stones and so got up to the Top of Pauls But let the Ceremony monger by his ●●ppery grow never so great he is paid in his own Coin for in requital his only Adorers are Women and Fops or such as love any thing that is great only because it is great May they not by the same reason adore an Asses Head with Flapping Luggs for they also are great very great Thus the Hog●n-Dutchman got Money being carried about from Fair to Fair amongst the ●ops that admir'd his Brawny-Buik the result of B●con and the Butter-Box The greatest Ingenuity of my Ceremony monger is that of an Ape viz. Imitation or Mimickry for the Monky has indeed something of the V●a●e and Resemblance of a Man and so has the Ceremony-mo●ger's worship the Face of Religion and Devotion but bo●h of them wants Reason and therefore the more abominable and of all Brutes most o●lous to radonal Men Simia quam similis turpissima Bestia nobis Of Brutes none are so lo●thsome as the Ape Wanting Man's Soul he only has Man's Shape But such is the force of Mimickry amongst Fops that it is far more easie to make a cringing dancing Ass than a dancing Horie in our Academy but the Mischief is there is so many of them they are not a R●e-Show they are so common that it will not quit cost to carry them about and show them at Sturbridge-Hair or Bartholomew Fair. Come Friends You shall see one of the Youngsters the Foal of a cringing Ass for nothing Come to your Postures Lad Hold up thy Head and in thy Chin thy Breast out and thy Belly in Now your Reverences well done face about again down I say close down to the hast to the Altar c. well done there 's hopes in thee thou may'st come to be a tall Man in the Church in time if this Trade do but hold For my Ceremony monger is an Ecclesiastical Thomas Anello or corruptly and vulgarly Masanello a despicable Tool to look on take him out of his Robes as filly a Fisher as heart can wish and yet he may grow great by as trivial Occasions the scrambling for a little rotten Ware Nuts and Apples in Midsummer Moons when the People run mad and are oppress'd But the worst is This Beast of the People is soon abus'd and soon disabus'd and is seldom long and quietly in England bestrid I will not say Priest-ridden by Fops they are apt as suddenly to play as Jade's T●k and after they have Huzz●'d loud Hosanna's one day soon after ready enough upon a contrary Provocation to cry Crucifi●ite Crucifigite Yet the Fool Masanello trusted to the unsteady Populace which made him insolent and insufferable Proud and morose till the same Mouths that cry'd him up soon after were ready to eat him dragging at a Horses Tall whom ten days before they cry'd up to the Skies they would have done the same to a Broom-staff if it could but have stood them in stead or could help to withstand the Gabels and Oppression but the Fool thought that the people ador'd his own worth which made the Fool insufferably petulant and was his Ruine Yet after all now that I better bethink my self and that seven years ago in my Black Nonconformist I did in vain wa●h this Aethiope I 'll even compound the Business with my Ceremony monger And because he has been many times a topping Ecclehastical Fellow Proun and Stomachfull Uncontrouiable and Wilful right or wrong he will l●ve his Will his Suring and his way let who will stand in his Way therefore since he says he will still bow like a Fop to nothing for he dare not say the Wafer is there hid slyly under the Carpet nor yet that God is more there than every where yet I 'll grant him a License upon two Conditions First That he never shake his empty Noddle at the Altar but when it is cover'd with a Cap a Sottin Cap to chuse the more decently to hide the soft place in his Head. Secondly That also then he hide the Popish Face of Adoration by putting on a Protestant Vizor Masque not only that his blushes be not visible a Braz●n Face may do that but to cover the Popish Physiognomy le● the undiscerning and superficial Judgments of the rude Vulgar spy it and nothing else for they search not the 〈◊〉 side and consequently handle him as if he really were a popish Priest his Cope his Hood his Surplice his Cringing Worship his Altar with Candles on it most Nonsensically unlighted too his Bag●pipes o Organs and in some places Viols Viollos singing Men and singing B●●s are all so very like Popery and all but the Vestments illegal that I protest when I came in 1660. first from beyond Sea to Pauls and White Hall I could scarce think my self to be in England but in Spain or Portugal again I saw so little Difference but that their Service was in Latine and ours in English but less intelligeable and less Edifying for one half thereof than Latine by reason of the I●articulate Boatus and Braylog whilst all the People read half the Psalms with a N●●se as confused as the Rumbling Thunder as I will prove more particularly by and by that any man in the World that had seen High Mass beyond Sea must say That the contrivance of both was to keep people in Ignorance the Mother of Devotion Faith comes by Hearing saith the Scripture but the Papist and Ceremony monger make as though it comes by Seeing they are all for a Show a vain show And shall not those that sin before all be rebuk'd before all That all may learn and all may be comforted But may some say to me perhaps That I talk very boldly why do I And do you th●●k in your Conscience that they do not sin more boldly There is a sinful Bishfulness in being loth to reprove as well as an Impudent Sin●e and a Whores forehead And shall a B● Ceremony monger dare to transgress the Laws of God and Man and Right and Reason And is there not a man amongst us all that has Courage enough to antique him Let him Huff like a blasphemous Goliah I fear him not if I were young and in my Prime

or Lord of the first House was wonderfully culminant and strong or else it is imposible that Irregularity and Folly could ever have been so notourly signified If I can erect thy Scheme I do prognosticat thou art in thy Detriment Fall and Azimuth I confess that amongst Dancing masters Rop-dancers Spanials and Monkeyes he is the fairest Candidate for a Reward or Crust that cringes comes over and bends the most nimbly but that men by Illegal and Irrational Capricio's should cherish their hopes so to become Favourites in the Church I do not understand it if I were as supple as the best I can only say as Cicero in his Declamation against Cataline Vivunt imó vivunt in senatum veniunt Oh tempora Oh mores It was a sad time when Father Peter or Madam Portsmouth chose Senators and that a poor Lad should find it out that the readiest Road to get into the Church or to the Steeple and Pinacle is to be like a young Setting-dog that first learns to stoop when he is bidden to nothing there 's hopes of him he 's coming on and may be a right Setting-dog in time and stoop to something CHAP. V. Of Bowing at the Name of Jesu THere is but one of these said Irregular and Illegal and Irrational Ceremonies afore-mentioned that have any colour of Law and that is the Canon for bowing at the Name Jesu but that Canon is nail'd by Scripture and Reason as well as by the Act of Uniformity which enacts great Penalties even Deprivation if any Ceremony monger obstinately persist in the Practise of any Ceremonies except those alone that are contained in the Common-Prayer-Bock of which that same of bowing at the Name of Joshua or Jesu and all their other Bowings and Cringes to the Altar to the East are none at all I protest I wonder at the Ceremony mongers Audacity and Fool-hardness that he still dare to do it in defiance of the Law Reason and Scripture except he think to set the Convocation-House over and above and on the Top of the Parliament-House where it will stand most Totteringly and subject to the Storms Let no man therefore think this Discourse to be bold or over-hold having the Law of God and Man Holy Scriptures and right Reason on my side and can therefore with such great Advantages baffle them all wonder rather at my incorrigible Ceremony-monger that will take no warning till he be forc'd publickly to recant the Schisms and Mischiefs his Noddle has forc'd in the Church of God. The strength of his Mai-Guards like that of Hell and Popery lies all in stopping the several Avenues of Light that none may enter into the Kingdom of Darkness for they hate the Light because their Deeds are Evil and therefore would if they could keep the Keys of the Press doors as well as the Pulpit doors that no glimmering may appear without License Thus the Devil Rages the more because his time is short and Frets and Fumes when you discover his Cloven-Foot especially when he has long been ador'd of which he is most Ambitious as an Angel of Light But Blessed be God that is above the Devil Truth and Light are his Glorious Attributes as Error and Darkness are the properties of Heil And if the Devil were not great in men and greatly strong they would submit to Law and Reason to God and his Holy Writ to the Laws of the Land. Equity and Conscience and not call to the Bevil and the Goaler to help them to wreek their Malice upon Innocent men that only show them their dirty Faces in a Glass God's Will be done I say with Chrysostome to Eudoxia the Empress I fear nothing but Sin and I must Sin except I reprove my Brethren and not suffer Sin upon them for as they have Sinn'd before all 't is sit they should Recant before all And so all of them will except they be past shame and consequently past Grace When Sick Men are deadly Sick and their whole Constitution so Distemper'd and out of Frame that the very N●ble Parts are senseless stupid and past feeling 't is high time to Toll the Bell for them they have not long to live Come then give Glory to God Confess and Recant publickly in the Church where thy Nonsense was committed and defy the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanitles of this wicked World. Oh! but may ●ome say It cannot be deny'd but that your Coremony-Monger is the Fop of all Fops for bowing to the Altar to the East now his Wafer-God is departed bu● have a care of condemning him when he bows at the Name of Jesu for Holy Scripture the Canon and Right Reason all three are his Vouchers Poor heares And as Solomon says Ye Fools when will ye be wise have not I wash● the●● ●●aok●mor●s and to as little purpose long ago For First That 〈◊〉 Philipptans the second At the Name of Jesu every knee shall bow woether in Heaven or Earth c. is no Precept but a Prophesie That the time shall come it is not yet come that the Name of Jesus shall 〈◊〉 above every Name whether Barchochobab the Jews Messias in English the Son of the Star Mehomet Antichrist or any other The th●e is not yet come for Jews Tu●ks Athlests and Devils do no● own the Name of Jesus above every Name whether in Heaven or Earth or Hell or things under the Earth but it shall come at least at the day o● Judgment and probably before Besides That Text At the Name of Jesus is depraved and ill 〈◊〉 to say no worse for if I did not revere to cast Dire upon the Ashe● of the Dead I could name a great Favourite-Bishop under King Charles the 〈◊〉 that made that Text speak false English to Countenance his ●illy and Fopplsh Warship from that Text for because he could not bring himself and his Silly Worship to the Scripture he as Impudently as Prophanely brought the Scripture to his Whimsey Thus Mahomet pretending to have Faith to remove Mountains told the People his Followers and Musselmen that he would make that great Mountain that stood before him to come down to him at his third Call and therefore most gravely admonished it to come Once Twice Thrice but no Mountain would come whereupon without changing Countenance he said If the Hill will not come to Mahomet Mahomet shall go to the Hi●l and so marcht till they met For by that Holy Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Name is meant In the vertue and power of J●us Every 〈◊〉 shall how c. As the Name of the Lord is a st●on Power the Righteous shall run to it and 〈◊〉 Prov. 19.10 No● the Letters or sound of Je●ovah not the Tetragrammat●n but the Power of God is the Tower not the four Letters or Sound of the Name whither the Righteous run and are safe Besides my Ceremont-Monger does not bow at the Name of Joshua which is the very word Jesu in

Synod ep l. 2. c. 8. for not being contented with small Bishopricks and no bigger than a Bishop might superintend in his own person If Rapin be no sin It was never ● good World since ●he Clergy and Layety drove on two several Interests and two Bodies distinct and made the Church one thing and the State another If the Clergy endeavour to keep the people in subjection and under their Girdle Canonical by Impositions Canons and Acts of Uniformity endeavouring to Lord it over God's Heritage the Layety no wonder that they strugle for life and liberty and that the Feuds and Animosities betwixt them are Immortal but they would die cease and decease If Clergy-men studied to restore sinners and erroneous persons in the spirit of meekness Ay but the obstinate will not so be restored then let him alone perhaps he knows more than thou dost that art his Teacher However to his own Master he standeth or falleth and thou by giving him Warning hast deliver'd thy Soul as to matters of Faith and Opinion but as to evil works that is the Magistrates Province and care to correct and punish But if we cannot fright our Parishoners they will not care a Pin for us No you should say they do not care for you nor love you because you are such Scare-crows and Bug bears that would be If they fear you only they 'l never love you Do but labour diligently in the Word and Doctrine and fear not but that all good men will give thee of all men living as the Apostle says double honour which is due to a Ruling Elder much more to the Ministers ●hat labour in the Word and Doctrine though with us quite contrary to Scripture The Ruling Elder or Bishop is the man of double Honou● amongst us and the Pastor or Teaching Elder must ●carce keep his Har●on in the presence of the great Ruling Bishop to who● the Apostle indeed commands us to give double honour but more especially to the Ministers or Pastors that Labour in the Word and Doctrine Those are the most honourable the most reverend Jure divino if you believe the holy Scriptures But Fops mind chiefly who speaks not wha● is spoken if it be the word of a Lord It is with them more valued and obey'd than the Word of the LORD These are unjust and corrupt Judges but I will not punish them if I had power as King Cambyses did one of his unjust Judges of the Kings-Bench viz. pull'd his Skin over his Ears stuf● it with Straw and there Hung my Gentleman over the Bench in terrorem that other Tresylians might learn to beware of undermining the chief Pillar of any Government the Fundamental Laws Since therefore to give a Ruling Elder or Bishop more honour than a Paster or a good Preacher is expresly against holy Writ as aforesaid look you to that but that great Scripture which they bring to prove that every City had a Bishop and but one Bishop and every Bishop had but one City you see by what has been said both these assertions are sufficiently prov'd to be false though we had no other instance than in Tit. 1.5 For this cause left I thee in Greet to ordain Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greet is an Island that 〈…〉 a hundred Cities and was therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Reign of Leosophus the Emperor and Anno 880. there were but Twelve Bishops but all that time why should we imagine that they were all Christians when the third great City of the Empire Antioch where Disciples were first called Christians and bigger than any City except Rome and Alexandria yet had no more Christians in is than one Church will hold Acts 13.44 Nay Jerusalem where our Lord was Crucified had so few Christians fourty years after at the destruction thereof that all the Christians being warned by God to depart did depart to Pella a poor little Village says Eusebius lib. 3. c. 5. held them all But we will take it for granted that Titus ordain'd in every City in the Island of Creet a Bishop namely a hundred And which is not at all likely that all were Christians for till Constantines time one Church held all the Christians in Rome and one great Church in Alexandria held all the Christians there as their Bishop Athanasius gives an account in his Epistle to Constantius the Son of Constanine yet Heylin in his Cosmeg p. 263 says There are in Creet but two hundred and seven Parishes then by that account the great Bishops will get but a Plurality two Parishes for their Diocesses And ever since that Bishops first Monopoliz'd so many Parishes all under their Ecclesiastical Government There has been no Ecclesiastical Government at all but a meer Anarchy and confusion as at this day and has been the occasion of setting up so many Independent Churches to the care of themselves and one another for whom the Ruling Bishop could not poisibly take care E●grossing all Government we have none at all but some silly face of it in a poor surrogate and Register that minds little else than to singer the Pence and shear the poor Clergy and Church-Wardens twice a year in Visitations c. Deliver your Purse Poor Sheep escape better than we they are clipt but once a year and the Master that seeds them has the Wool but they that shear us poor Lambs take our Wool but seed us not they have it for nothing and their great Revenues will not satisfie but as I said in my naked truth It is not a sin for a rich man to rob the Spittle Let such hard hearted Clergy-men who have such exceeding many Flocks and Herds read their Neck Verse 2 Sam. 12.5 6. In Nathan's Parable of the Lamb and the Sentence And David's anger was greatly Kindled against the man and he said to Nathan As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely die and he shall restore the Lamb four fold because he did this thing and because he had no pity And what do they visit for To see that all be Uniform Pish it is not to be done they themselves are not Uniform nor their Cathedral Worship Uniform with one another nor with Countrey Churches nor with the Act of Uniformity And what harm So all things be done decently and in order it needs not by order of Uniformity Nay Pope Gregory the 〈◊〉 Six hundred years after Christ commends variety of Usages In unâ fide nibil officit Sanctae Ecclesiae diversa consuetudo Let them show us one such Diocesan Bishop as we have got in England In the best and purest Times or one Bishop that ever durst pretend to Govern the Church by Implicite Faith in others for the first three hundred years or any thing like it In holy Scriptures or any reason for it or any possibility to discharge that heavy charge And I 'le strike out Avarice and Ambition as the

great cause and Surrogate a better Reason in the room and be their Profe●●te Nay I 'le stoop lower I 'le condescend to be my Lord 's the Bishops Chaplain and Apologist But If all their skill cannot do it then it is high time to Recant and Repent that iniquity may not be our ruine and to restore the Lamb four-fold and because rich Dives had no more pity of his brethren whom the rich Diocesan calls according to the Style in the Primitive Church Reverend Brother and Brother but looks over the head of his Brother Elder or Presbyter as if a Conge d'Fslier had made him a Saul and higher by the Head when he only Struts being Rich and stands a Tip-toe but is not a better man nor a better Scholar than he was before It may binder his Worth and Learning rather by Avocations runing from Ordinations to the House of Lords thence to the Council-chamber thence to confirmations thence to Visitations c. If these do not hinder a Mans Study and Improvement I have lost my aim Let them but Read Mr. Baxter's Learned Book of Episcopacy or Arch-bishop C●●nmer's Opinion or Ordination This latter a Learned and Holy Martyr The former a most Learned and pious Confessour or let them bu● read the New Testament and there is little or no difference at all betwixt a Presbyter or Elder and Bishop what in one Verse is called Presbyter in the next is called Bishop as Bethlehem the Town is the same with Bethlehem the City aforesaid And a Parish signifi'd the same with Dioce●s But in alter ●●mes when Christians Multiplyed if a Presbyter could not Watch over all their Souls they allowed him a Co-adjutor and for distinction and Precedency sake called him a Bishop who sometimes had not one Presbyter under him as aforesaid most commonly but one and till Bishops begun to Scramble for more Ground and like other Princes to enlarge their Dominions and Jurisdictions which was not till the Emperour Constantine made them so bigg that in the Fourth Century the great Work of Councils and synods was Perambulation to Mark out the Bounds of the● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Parishes or Diocesses to keep the Peace bet wixt the Encroaching Bishops in that Fourth Century called Ambitionis seculum The Ambitious Century not that Bishops in after Ages grew more humble or were Ensamples to the Flock in Self-denial Modesty Humility and Contempt of Worldly Grandeur and as they say they Vow'd in Baptism to forsake the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanitles of this Wicked World c. But then first they begun to be ambitious of large Diocesses more than possibly they could 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or oversee then they got Journey-men and Surrogates and Registers and Apparitors and all that Tribe to Feed whom the Church Wardens are the Spaniels Sworn to Hunt and Flush the Game that the hovering Jar-Faulcon the Register may Pounce them there 's all and make a Prey of Poor Sinners never to be Redeem'd but by Silver or Gold. The Golden Key always gets Absolution which in Gospel Times and the Primitive Times never was purchased but with Tears in the midst of the congregation as Jerom of Fabiola ep ad ocean Episcopo Presbyteris omni p●puio Collachry-mantibus c. The Bishops Presbyters and all the People Weeping for Joy at those Peultent Tears and at the Return of the Prodigal mixing their Tears with his Heb. 13.17 Obey them that Rule over you for they Watch for your Souls as they that must give an Account c. A woful and sad Account must that Bishop make when God calls him to give an Account which will be very shortly of his Bishoprick for he shall be no longer Bishop Howought he to Tremble at the Thoughts of it When in ●●ead of Watching for the Souls committed to his Charge he has only wa●ch't for their Pu●●es And instead of Guiding them he has sent out Doctor 's Commons-men to Watch all England over in the Bishops Room we Trace them by the Footing at a Visitation c. What have they been doing Citing Admonishing Excommunicating Jayling Absolving this Twenty Nine long Years in all this Kingdom What ●en●●en●s have they made What Penance What Repentance Is it not a great Chear that defeats all Repentance By Commuting as the Papists and we say turning the Whores Sins by which she got Money they Joy in her for they go Ships into Money and a few great Whores are ●how to Maintain all the Ecclesiastical free-booters in Doctors-Commons she is the Thief that Pick 's Men's Pockets they the Receivers Oh! the Jubi●ee's they make when the Apparitor has found out a Rich Wh●re and a Rich Bastard which least they should miss let the Church-Wardens look to it for they Swear the Ecclesiastical Span●el always to quest upon a Haunt if he do not he is forsworn Oh most Preciou● Ecclesias●ical D●scipline that begins with Perjury and ends with Mercenary Repentance or Bribery Why should not the King and Parliament be as careful of their Subjects Souls as their Bodies For they also must give an Account But what an Irrational account would it be if it was to be feared that an Enemy should Land and Invade us at Harwich or Canterbury to say I have set a Watch-man upon the Top of Paul's or to make sure upon the Higher Steeple of Lambeth call to the Watch-men is the Enemy Landed at Harwich How angry would they be at such a non-se●sical Question And say Surely you are Mad Do you think any Mortal Man can see from London to Harwich Or from Lambeth to Canterbury There may be a Hundred Thousand Enemies Landed for ought we know How is it possible for us to Watch and Ward at this Distance In the ●nte●im the Kingdom is well look't to And the Coasts well Guarded are they not We are the next Door to Ruin if more Watch men be not set and stronger Guards which is easie and no charge or expence at all when the Pay that two Watch-men have ingrost would well pay and maintain fourty of as good Vigour and Ability and in some Sence better-sighted and better Tongu'd Watch-men to Feed and give Warning Or are the wellfare of our Lands and Bodies only the care of Governours And as for Mens Souls one Watch-man is enough betwixt this and Canterbury But you 'le say a Man is but a Man he does what a Man can do Nemo tenetur ad Impossibilia I grant But who bid him undertake such a Charge that no Mortal can discharge Who Who think you but Filthy-lucre and Ambition The Council of Sardica in the Fourth Century Anno 347. saw this Devilish mischief coming Trowling into the Church and a perpetual strife and comest about the Borders and Limi●s as Litigious as now at Doctors-Commons about the Probate of Wills and about Letters of Administration namely who shall get the Money whether the Bishop's or Arch-deacon's Courts of that Diocess